1530 — KEN LIVINGSTONE IS TALKING ABOUT HITLER ON TV
AGAIN — NOW ON THE BBC

BBC

The former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone is on TV talking about
Hitler again.

To be fair, the BBC presenters did bring up how his comments
about Hitler being a Zionist, which led to his suspension on
April 28, was damaging to the Labour party and has hurt the
frontrunner for the Mayor of London elections, Sadiq Khan, too.

In response to the allegation, Livingstone told the presenters
and the panel that "MPs should be criticised for lying but not
for telling the truth" and he never dodges questions.

He maintained that he was only responding to questions from the
BBC about another suspended Labour party member Naz Shah
over allegations of anti-semitism and cited the historian Brenner
about why he thinks Hitler was a Zionist.

1524 — THE CURRENT VOTE COUNT FOR THE MAYOR OF LONDON IS
VERY SIMILAR TO WHAT HAPPENED IN THE GENERAL ELECTION
2015

As things stand, Khan/Goldsmith vote shares exactly the same as Lab/Con for 2015 GE in London: 44% plays 35%. #LondonMayor2016

1428 — SCOTLAND'S FIRST MINISTER AND LEADER OF THE
SNP REJECTS IDEA OF A COALITION

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said in a speech which
was broadcasted over several networks that "yesterday the
SNP made history. We won the highest share of the
constituency vote and the highest share
of constituency seats.

She added that the SNP this year was the first to "poll
more than one million votes."

With this in mind, she said that the SNP "won a clear and
unequivocal mandate"— even though it had lost its majority in
parliament and the Conservatives leapfrogged over Labour to
become Scotland's second largest party.

She said the SNP does not "intend to seek any formal
arrangement" with any other party.

Polling expert Professor John Curtice — who works
for the University of Strathclyde and is a Senior
Research Fellow at NatCen Social Research — told the
BBC (emphasis ours):

Given the current state of the first preference count of
the mayoral election, and taking into account, according to the
opinion polls, the distribution of the second preferences of
those who voted for neither Khan nor Goldsmith on the first
preference vote, it looks as though Khan might win the
mayoral election by 57% to 43%.

1307 — BOOKMAKERS ARE ALREADY CALLING THE LONDON MAYOR
ELECTION

Looks like the shrewdies who backed Sadiq Khan to be Mayor at 33/1 a couple of years back are about to get paid out. pic.twitter.com/wpAVMq9Jy8

The Sky News presenter asked Ken Livingstone if he was
responsible for giving Conservative leader and Britain's Prime
Minister a "spring in his step" for talking about "Nazis being
cahoots with Zionists" and "ruining it for the Labour party."
This was Livingstone's response:

When journalists ask me a question, I answer it honestly. What
was disgraceful was that group of MPs, those Blairites that
wanted to get rid of Jeremy [Corbyn] and saw this as an
opportunity to make all sorts of allegations and smears in the
hope that it would divert attention and damage us massively.

"Labour has still done very well ... those who have gone out and
ignored all that [allegations of anti-semitism] nonsense and
voted, supported Jeremy."

He then added that Labour support has been damaged by "the
far-right diverting attention" from Corbyn's anti-austerity
policies.

Sky News then said "the Labour party has been damaged by you Mr
Livingstone. The last 10 days of the vote was dominated by those
unguarded and ill-advised comments" — referring to Hitler being a
Zionist in 1932.

Livingstone said:

It is not an unguarded or ill-advised comment to answer a
question honestly about historical reality.

The former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone was suspended on April
28, barely a week ago,
over allegations of anti-Semitism. He said Hitler
"was supporting Zionism" in 1932, "before he went mad and ended
up killing six million Jews."

It’s down to one person, and that’s Ken Livingstone. He has
caused grotesque offence to the Jewish population in Prestwich
with his absolutely awful comments. Our councillors put their
hearts and souls into representing the area and there really is
no place in the Labour Party for bigots like Ken
Livingstone.

1213 — SADIQ KHAN IS STILL LEADING THE MAYOR OF LONDON
COUNT

We still have at least 6 hours to go until the results of the
Mayor of London election is published. This is how the main
contenders are doing at the moment.

It was widely believed that Labour would lose upwards of 100
seats. It has managed to hold onto some but it is still losing
ground.

Here is the latest set of results for the England council
elections at 88 out of 124 councils called:

BBC

1141 — JEREMY CORBYN: 'WE HUNG ON'

Corbyn told a crowd in Sheffield that Labour hanging onto seats
is a victory considering it was predicted to lose a lot more.

You can listen to his speech here:

1127 — ZAC GOLDSMITH IS A "JEKYLL AND HYDE
CHARACTER"

Conservative
candidate for London Mayor Zac Goldsmith sits in a Spitfire plane
during a tour of Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar in south east
London.Philip Toscano / PA Wire/Press
Association Images

Liberal Democrat Baroness Kramer is not a fan of the
Conservative party's Mayor of London candidate — to put it
bluntly.

After standing against him for the Richmond parliamentary seat in
2010, she told BBC Radio
London Goldsmith today that he is a "Jekyll and
Hyde character."

"I was constantly called vicious and no better than a computer,"
she added.

She added Goldsmith "could be exceedingly charming but, when
challenged, he resents it. He is a Jekyll and Hyde
character."

1120 — HILLARY BENN OFFERS (A LITTLE) SUPPORT TO LABOUR
LEADER CORBYN

The Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn told BBC News:

“I don’t there is any complacency on the part of anybody in the
party. We have a big task ahead, Jeremy was elected with a big
mandate, our job is to support him but in the end it is the
electoral test that counts.

"And if we are going to be able to defeat this government then we
have got to win more support in the months and the years ahead.
This is the first stage, and we have made progress compared to
last year, but we have a long way to go.”

1104 — SADIQ KHAN IS LEADING IN THE MAYOR OF LONDON VOTE
COUNT

LondonElects has a handy real-time counter for how the
12 Mayor of London candidates are doing. Currently Sadiq Khan for
the Labour party is leading the race:

Conservative
Mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith (L) and Labour Mayoral candidate
Sadiq Khan attend a rally against a third runway at Heathrow
airport, in Parliament Square on October 10, 2015 in London,
England. Before today's rally against a third runway at Heathrow,
Parliamentary hearings were announced yesterday to investigate
whether the increase in flight traffic will break toxic air
limits.Chris Ratcliffe/Getty
Images

We will find out around 6 p.m. BST who is the next Mayor of
London.

The two frontrunners are Zac Goldsmith for the Conservative party
and Sadiq Khan for the Labour party (both pictured to the right).

1017 — FORMER HEAD OF POLLING AGENCY YOUGOV SUMS UP HOW
BAD IT IS FOR LABOUR IN SCOTLAND RIGHT NOW

The former President of YouGov Peter Kellner wrote an
article for Prospect magazine, outlining how shocking it is that
Labour came third in Scotland:

Labour’s worst performances last night were in Wales (down eight
percentage points since the last equivalent elections in 2011)
and Scotland (down nine). But this time, the beneficiaries have
been not the nationalist parties but the Right: Ukip in Wales and
the Conservatives in Scotland. Indeed, the Tories have overtaken
Labour to become the official opposition at Holyrood. For Labour
to come third in a country it used to dominate is truly
startling.

As Business Insider pointed out early this morning, the party
members' line of not blaming leader Jeremy Corbyn for the
devastating loss in Scotland is all
"very polite":

Deputy leader Tom Watson says it is too early to blame the new
leader. "I don’t think that eight months in you can reasonably
think that these set of results are solely down to Jeremy
Corbyn,"he told The Guardian. John Mann said no one wants a new
leadership challenge. Labour Lord Peter Thain on BBC TV praised
Corbyn for bringing votes back from the Greens, who are losing
ground so far, but suggested that Corbyn needed to broaden his
appeal beyond the left.

“It’s down to one person, and that’s Ken Livingstone. He
has caused grotesque offence to the Jewish population in
Prestwich with his absolutely awful comments. Our councillors put
their hearts and souls into representing the area and there
really is no place in the Labour Party for bigots like Ken
Livingstone.”

Ukip has made a great breakthrough today, and I don’t think the
politics of the assembly will ever be the same again. This has
been quite a surprising turn of events for me. I hadn’t
anticipated at the age of 67 that I would once again be elected
to public office. Particularly after I had been liberated from it
so spectacularly in 1997 by the electorate. But I came back into
politics after that event for one thing and one thing only, to
free our country from the bonds of the European Union.

Our main aim in the next few week is to make sure we win the
referendum and that the whole of Britain including Wales is freed
from the shackles of the EU.

0932 — TORIES EMERGE AS THE REAL WINNERS IN
SCOTLAND

The unthinkable has just happened — the Tories have beaten Labour
into second place in Scotland. On top of that, the SNP lost some
of its edge and in fact lost the majority.

This is a huge coup for the Conservative party considering it has
battled for years to reclaim ground in Scotland. Scottish voters
usually vote for either SNP or Labour with only a smattering of
Tory voters.

However, this is great for the Tories but devastating for the SNP
and Labour.

Meanwhile, Labour losing ground in Scotland is devastating for
its prospects. Labour needs the Scottish vote to get a majority
in a General Election. While the next one isn't until 2020, today
is a damning indictment of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership — even
though MPs are refusing to blame him just yet.

When Jeremy Corbyn was only elected Labour leader last year and
this should be the honeymoon period.

0907 — SNP COMES OUT TOP IN SCOTLAND BUT SHOCKINGLY, THE
TORIES BEAT LABOUR

0901 — THE DEPUTY LEADER OF LABOUR — TOM WATSON SAID
LABOUR FACES "A LONG JOURNEY BACK TO WIN BACK HEARTS AND MINDS IN
SCOTLAND"

Deputy
Leader of the Labour Party Tom Watson delivers the closing speech
to delegates on the final day of The Labour Party Autumn
Conference on September 30, 2015 in Brighton, England. On the
fourth and final day of the annual Labour Party Conference,
delegates will debate and vote on an emergency motion detailing
strict conditions for the support of military action in Syria, as
well as attending talks on healthcare and education from Labour
politicians.Ben Pruchnie/Getty
Images

Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson told BBC's Today
programme:

“MPs are very important leaders within the Labour party, but our
members lead the Labour party now. The one thing Jeremy [Corbyn]
and I agree on very strongly is that we want a member-led party.
He was elected with a very strong mandate only eight months ago.

“Even our opponents would say that after eight months it would be
very unfair and improper to hang this set of election results on
Jeremy Corbyn’s peg alone. After only eight months people would
say he needs more time to show the direction Labour needs to take
to win that 2020 general election.

"[We face] a long journey back to win back hearts and minds
in Scotland. We certainly have to make progress in Scotland
before the next general election.

“Scottish voters want to see that the UK Labour party has learned
the lesson of the Scottish referendum. So what we do on English
devolution is important. We need to make sure we are committed to
driving power out of Westminster. The remedy is very complex and
we don’t have all the answers now. But I understand the
seriousness of the task ahead.”

0849 — UKIP IS GAINING GROUND

We know that Labour is haemorrhaging seats and this
has meant that right-leaning parties are gathering more
ground.

The Conservatives have popped back from the dead in
Scotland and is on course to beat Labour to second place, behind
the SNP.

Meanwhile, UKIP is seeing a rise in seats and assembly
member positions.